1 00:00:05,150 --> 00:00:06,800 Welcome back to Count Me In, 2 00:00:07,020 --> 00:00:10,560 the podcast that explores the world of business from a management accountant's 3 00:00:10,561 --> 00:00:13,600 perspective. Today, I'm speaking with Rocky Buckley, 4 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:18,040 a personal branding consultant who helps experts maximize the value of their 5 00:00:18,060 --> 00:00:19,560 unique knowledge and skills. 6 00:00:20,130 --> 00:00:24,120 Rocky does a great job of demystifying the concept of a personal brand and 7 00:00:24,121 --> 00:00:28,360 explains how understanding and embracing your specialization helps management 8 00:00:28,361 --> 00:00:30,920 accountants and others thrive in a chaotic world. 9 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:38,400 Rocky, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. 10 00:00:38,540 --> 00:00:42,040 Really appreciate you coming on to share your expertise with us today. 11 00:00:42,700 --> 00:00:47,240 And so today we're gonna be kind of talking about personal branding and there's 12 00:00:47,241 --> 00:00:49,680 so many things happening in the world like pandemics, 13 00:00:50,110 --> 00:00:54,640 wars and in a lot of ways you have to kind of find a way to make yourself stand 14 00:00:54,660 --> 00:00:58,320 out in order to show the world, Hey, this is who I am, 15 00:00:58,321 --> 00:01:01,600 and this is how I want to go. And so kind of, maybe we can start off. 16 00:01:01,601 --> 00:01:03,000 Maybe you can define what does it mean? 17 00:01:03,001 --> 00:01:05,760 What does personal branding mean and why is it important for us? 18 00:01:06,190 --> 00:01:10,760 Yeah, well, personal branding is really an offshoot of branding itself, which, 19 00:01:11,441 --> 00:01:13,800 in a nutshell basically is a way to 20 00:01:15,310 --> 00:01:18,920 take a shortcut into people's minds, right? 21 00:01:18,970 --> 00:01:21,800 We're in a crowded marketplace. There's a lot of noise. 22 00:01:22,330 --> 00:01:25,000 We're bombarded with marketing messages all day long, 23 00:01:25,100 --> 00:01:29,240 all sorts of different inputs and the ability to stand out, as you said, 24 00:01:29,260 --> 00:01:34,200 to be able to sort of penetrate through all of that noise and cut through in a 25 00:01:34,201 --> 00:01:38,520 way that resonates with the type of person that we're we're targeting. 26 00:01:38,860 --> 00:01:42,240 It becomes very important to figure out a way to do that. 27 00:01:42,340 --> 00:01:43,800 So on a corporate level, you know, of course, 28 00:01:43,801 --> 00:01:48,440 branding is sort of that company's vision mission, what they're all about. 29 00:01:48,860 --> 00:01:52,640 And then all of that gets crystallized into, you know, visual form. 30 00:01:52,660 --> 00:01:54,520 It can be a logo, it can be a style, 31 00:01:54,540 --> 00:01:58,040 it can be a way that they communicate their message to the world. 32 00:01:58,300 --> 00:02:03,160 So when you take that to a personal level, the same sort of principles apply, 33 00:02:03,350 --> 00:02:07,120 what we're looking to do is take all of those aspects of ourselves that make us 34 00:02:07,121 --> 00:02:09,840 unique, different, you know, 35 00:02:09,860 --> 00:02:13,880 and really connect with that kind of person that we are for that we're really 36 00:02:13,881 --> 00:02:17,520 targeting at. And being able to kind of create a shortcut version of that, 37 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:22,720 a crystallized version that somebody can very quickly get what you're all about 38 00:02:22,900 --> 00:02:26,160 and get whether or not they connect with you or not. And again, 39 00:02:26,161 --> 00:02:27,680 we're not looking to please everybody, 40 00:02:27,940 --> 00:02:32,000 but we are looking for those people that we are trying to connect with to 41 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:35,120 resonate with us. And so, you know, when we talk about personal branding, 42 00:02:35,121 --> 00:02:39,880 you know, some people just naturally come across in a way that cuts through, 43 00:02:39,881 --> 00:02:43,639 right. They just have a big enough personality where they resonate with people, 44 00:02:44,060 --> 00:02:47,760 but for most of us, you know, it requires some conscious thought and design. 45 00:02:48,190 --> 00:02:49,960 It's sort of like thinking through, you know, 46 00:02:49,961 --> 00:02:52,000 what are those elements about me that are different? 47 00:02:52,001 --> 00:02:56,560 What are those aspects about what I do that I really want to convey very 48 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:59,680 strongly? What's that sense of purpose maybe that I have, right. 49 00:02:59,681 --> 00:03:01,360 That makes me excited about what I do. 50 00:03:01,700 --> 00:03:05,600 So it's being strategic and kind of being able to figure all of that stuff out 51 00:03:05,940 --> 00:03:10,280 and then being able to distill it in a way that's constructed for public 52 00:03:10,281 --> 00:03:11,320 consumption, right, 53 00:03:11,419 --> 00:03:13,760 for other people to be able to get and get it really quickly. 54 00:03:14,180 --> 00:03:15,280 So that turns into, you know, 55 00:03:15,281 --> 00:03:18,720 your messaging and your visual branding and all of that kind of stuff. 56 00:03:18,740 --> 00:03:23,400 But ultimately we want a snapshot of ourselves that people will be able to kind 57 00:03:23,401 --> 00:03:27,440 of understand really quickly that simple, fast, you know, 58 00:03:27,700 --> 00:03:29,240 and easy and cuts through the noise. 59 00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:33,160 It almost makes me think of that old fashioned elevator pitch that you would 60 00:03:33,161 --> 00:03:35,640 say, you know, if you're in an elevator, what would, you know, 61 00:03:35,641 --> 00:03:38,640 what could you say to somebody in that ride on the elevator in a sense, right? 62 00:03:38,990 --> 00:03:43,080 Yeah. Yeah. It is that really that fast because, you know, 63 00:03:43,081 --> 00:03:46,960 especially now as people are moving more online and the online market, 64 00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:49,240 as you just mentioned, pandemics and wars and stuff, 65 00:03:49,470 --> 00:03:51,560 it's really made people rethink their business. 66 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,320 A lot of people have now decided to come online much more than they ever were 67 00:03:55,321 --> 00:03:57,960 before by necessity or by choice, right. 68 00:03:58,670 --> 00:04:01,800 When you step into the online marketplace, you know, 69 00:04:01,820 --> 00:04:06,800 you find it's even more crowded and you're connecting people through 70 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:11,440 a scroll on a phone typically, or some kind of a timeline where, you know, 71 00:04:12,060 --> 00:04:14,360 if you're scrolling, let's say through Facebook, I mean, 72 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,080 Facebook can only put so many people on your timeline, 73 00:04:17,580 --> 00:04:21,800 and it's basically a way to compress the world into this one narrow thing that 74 00:04:21,801 --> 00:04:22,880 people can scroll through. 75 00:04:23,300 --> 00:04:28,200 And so for you to be able to actually have somebody stop the scroll 76 00:04:29,339 --> 00:04:32,560 and actually pay attention to you for more than a few seconds, 77 00:04:32,630 --> 00:04:36,279 like that's a big deal and we've gotta master kind of the art and science of 78 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:39,800 being able to know how to do that. Right. And so, yeah, 79 00:04:39,801 --> 00:04:43,600 the online marketplace is really, really crowded and yeah, 80 00:04:43,601 --> 00:04:47,640 more important than ever before. And it's just going to become more so, 81 00:04:47,940 --> 00:04:48,561 you know, 82 00:04:48,561 --> 00:04:51,640 there's billions of people in the world that haven't even come online yet, 83 00:04:52,140 --> 00:04:56,160 you know, so like it's, and the population of course is growing and so on. 84 00:04:56,161 --> 00:05:00,880 So being able to construct an effective personal brand that 85 00:05:00,910 --> 00:05:05,080 cuts through this is sort of a master skill that I think is only gonna become 86 00:05:05,081 --> 00:05:06,400 more important as time goes on. 87 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:08,339 So what I'm almost hearing you say, 88 00:05:08,340 --> 00:05:11,420 it's almost like we need to make ourselves like a specialist in a way to make 89 00:05:11,421 --> 00:05:13,140 sure that we stand out in that way. 90 00:05:13,141 --> 00:05:15,620 Does that make sense to make ourselves a specialist? 91 00:05:16,210 --> 00:05:16,540 Well, 92 00:05:16,540 --> 00:05:21,540 I think being a specialist is one aspect of 93 00:05:21,541 --> 00:05:22,374 a way to stand out. 94 00:05:22,380 --> 00:05:26,220 I think that specialization is more of a conversation about business model. 95 00:05:27,020 --> 00:05:31,700 I think there's a reason why we would wanna specialize beyond just the 96 00:05:31,701 --> 00:05:32,820 branding elements of it. 97 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:37,020 Specialization allows us to do things like raise our prices a lot, 98 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:38,380 charge a lot more. 99 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:42,540 And it really affects then everything downstream in a business model. 100 00:05:43,541 --> 00:05:45,140 From a branding standpoint, yeah, specialization 101 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,940 is one of those ways that allows you to filter all of the people 102 00:05:51,730 --> 00:05:56,620 potentially in the market and start to narrow those down into a slice that 103 00:05:56,621 --> 00:06:00,400 you can target very specifically. So for example, you know, a good, 104 00:06:00,401 --> 00:06:04,560 good example of that might be as if you were a doctor and you were a general 105 00:06:04,561 --> 00:06:09,000 practitioner, you know, versus specializing in one part of the body. 106 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:11,200 Right. And so therefore, you know, 107 00:06:12,180 --> 00:06:16,279 you're gonna basically be for those people that are looking for that one thing, 108 00:06:16,300 --> 00:06:19,279 you know, I have a problem with my nose or something like that. 109 00:06:19,660 --> 00:06:23,080 And I'm looking for a nose doctor as opposed to a general practitioner. 110 00:06:23,540 --> 00:06:26,200 So when it comes to something like accounting, yeah. 111 00:06:26,201 --> 00:06:29,640 If you can specialize and be great in that one area, 112 00:06:30,140 --> 00:06:34,000 you're gonna cut down the potential number of people that you're trying to 113 00:06:34,001 --> 00:06:34,700 reach. 114 00:06:34,700 --> 00:06:38,440 And the potential people that are looking for you are gonna be able to find you 115 00:06:38,441 --> 00:06:42,080 much more easily because you're focused on that one thing. Yeah. 116 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:44,839 Hmm. That makes sense. Yeah. Cuz when I think about it, 117 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:47,960 a lot of times accountants have to wear so many hats, 118 00:06:47,961 --> 00:06:50,640 especially if you're in a small to medium size business and you're a CFO or 119 00:06:50,641 --> 00:06:52,920 controller, you kind of have to be a jack of all trades. 120 00:06:52,921 --> 00:06:53,920 You have to do a lot of different things. 121 00:06:53,980 --> 00:06:58,240 And so there have to be ways to differentiate yourself in a way. 122 00:06:58,260 --> 00:07:00,960 So a lot of times people start with certifications, you know, 123 00:07:01,100 --> 00:07:02,360 IMA offers a certification, 124 00:07:02,380 --> 00:07:05,760 certifications are one way to kind of make yourself a specialist. 125 00:07:05,761 --> 00:07:09,080 Are there other ways that you can kind of establish yourself in that way? 126 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:13,700 Oh sure. Well, first of all, just the choice of that market niche, 127 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:17,900 that's step one. So if you decide like right now, Hey, 128 00:07:17,980 --> 00:07:21,780 I am a general practitioner, but I wanna really reinvent myself. 129 00:07:21,820 --> 00:07:24,700 I wanna change what I do. I wanna be able to narrow my focus. 130 00:07:25,370 --> 00:07:27,900 Then there's a process of going through, you know, 131 00:07:28,100 --> 00:07:30,700 a really internally thinking about, you know, 132 00:07:30,701 --> 00:07:33,420 who are those clients that I really enjoy working with the most, 133 00:07:33,930 --> 00:07:36,700 what am I really good at? What am I my best at? 134 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:41,260 And so there's a process of again becoming strategic about it, 135 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:45,100 really thinking through, you know, what makes me different, 136 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:49,380 how do I stand out? You know, what am I great at? 137 00:07:49,790 --> 00:07:53,540 Where have I had the most success perhaps with clients? 138 00:07:53,690 --> 00:07:55,540 What do I enjoy most, et cetera. 139 00:07:55,640 --> 00:08:00,020 So I think you kind of have to start there internally because the source of 140 00:08:00,430 --> 00:08:05,420 being able to really resonate with other people as a brand is your passion and 141 00:08:05,421 --> 00:08:07,340 your enthusiasm for something, right? 142 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:12,500 So like if you really find a certain kind of accounting to be dull drudgery, 143 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:16,940 you can make a lot of money at it, but you really despise it. You know, 144 00:08:16,941 --> 00:08:18,940 you're not gonna really wanna specialize there. 145 00:08:19,060 --> 00:08:23,140 You're gonna wanna find those areas that you're super interested in that you 146 00:08:23,141 --> 00:08:25,540 naturally love because you know, 147 00:08:25,541 --> 00:08:30,340 it's hard to become great at something that you don't love doing, you know? 148 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:34,380 And so I always kind of start with this inner game component when I'm working 149 00:08:34,381 --> 00:08:38,780 with people to kind of help, to drill down into that, find that, discover that. 150 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:42,179 And once you've tapped into, Hey man, you know, ideally, 151 00:08:42,180 --> 00:08:46,380 this is what I'd love to do. This is what I would love to become, you know, 152 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:50,460 two years from now, five years from now, ideally this is who I wanna be. 153 00:08:50,850 --> 00:08:52,620 When you can get a clear vision for that, 154 00:08:52,621 --> 00:08:57,040 then you can start working back on the specialization aspect of it I think, 155 00:08:57,041 --> 00:08:59,320 right. You can say, then what do I have to do to get there? 156 00:08:59,740 --> 00:09:02,559 And that's where certifications may come into play, 157 00:09:02,780 --> 00:09:05,200 but there's also other ways to specialize too. 158 00:09:05,201 --> 00:09:09,600 Like you don't only have to specialize on the niche that you're doing. 159 00:09:10,179 --> 00:09:12,640 It can also be your system, your process. 160 00:09:12,940 --> 00:09:17,880 You may have a way to do things that's very fast or very effective and you can 161 00:09:17,881 --> 00:09:22,400 differentiate yourself and specialize, for example, in the area of speed. 162 00:09:22,570 --> 00:09:27,200 Let's say you're able to get something done much faster than everybody else. 163 00:09:27,201 --> 00:09:28,760 You've got a system for how to do it. 164 00:09:29,179 --> 00:09:32,679 You can basically be a specialist in that system, right? 165 00:09:32,780 --> 00:09:36,040 So there's lots of ways to slice up, you know, 166 00:09:36,041 --> 00:09:40,960 what you do to make you special and stand out and again, be able to charge more. 167 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:43,760 I think ultimately from a business model perspective, 168 00:09:44,190 --> 00:09:45,720 when you can shift your pricing, 169 00:09:46,970 --> 00:09:49,740 that changes the game on a whole number of other levels, 170 00:09:49,741 --> 00:09:52,420 because you don't have to work with as many clients, right? 171 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,860 If you have more profit margin in your business, 172 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,140 you can do more things to advertise, promote yourself. 173 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:01,059 And then when there's more profit margin, 174 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:04,980 you can also bring on other team members, right. So you can start to scale. 175 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:09,780 So like specialization has a number of ripple effects, you know, 176 00:10:10,230 --> 00:10:10,781 after that, 177 00:10:10,781 --> 00:10:14,620 there's a lot of dominoes that go in that get kicked off when you can start to 178 00:10:14,700 --> 00:10:17,140 specialize. So hopefully that helps. 179 00:10:18,330 --> 00:10:22,100 Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. So as we're talking about this, 180 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:23,620 I'm thinking about like, you know, 181 00:10:23,621 --> 00:10:26,460 being a specialist and you're trying to figure out your personal branding, 182 00:10:26,461 --> 00:10:29,900 it seems like as you're trying to plan all these things out, 183 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,980 you kind of have to get a vision and kind of make some strategic decisions 184 00:10:33,981 --> 00:10:37,500 around, you know, around what your next steps are gonna do. 185 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:41,300 Are there certain questions we should kind of ask ourselves as we're kind of 186 00:10:41,301 --> 00:10:44,340 trying to lay out those strategic decisions going forward? 187 00:10:44,809 --> 00:10:47,260 Yeah. I think some of the stuff that I mentioned at the top, 188 00:10:47,690 --> 00:10:49,620 what do I really get excited about? 189 00:10:49,621 --> 00:10:54,260 Because I made this mistake when I first started my business 23 years ago, 190 00:10:55,300 --> 00:10:57,140 I saw an opportunity to make money, right? 191 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:01,580 It was right in front of me and I kind of liked it, but you know, 192 00:11:01,620 --> 00:11:03,940 I didn't necessarily love it, but I said, okay, 193 00:11:03,941 --> 00:11:07,940 here's an opportunity for me to turn what I know into a business. 194 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,179 And so I jumped into that business and I got good at it and I got clients right 195 00:11:12,180 --> 00:11:16,460 away and, you know, but I didn't really, really love it. 196 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:21,380 And over time, that lack of passion started to play out the busier. I got, 197 00:11:21,381 --> 00:11:22,740 the more successful I got, 198 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:27,660 the more I just found myself living a life that I didn't wanna have or I was 199 00:11:27,661 --> 00:11:31,900 just busy all the time. And I had no margin, no space in my life. 200 00:11:31,901 --> 00:11:34,580 And I really wasn't feeling like I was making a difference. 201 00:11:35,179 --> 00:11:38,500 I wasn't making an impact on people at a level that I wanted to, right? 202 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:43,220 So for me, like I think these considerations are first the inner game part, 203 00:11:43,550 --> 00:11:46,620 right? They are that what do I love, what am I really good at? 204 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:51,620 And then how does that start to craft into a message and a brand? So it may be, 205 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:52,120 you know, 206 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:56,559 mining out aspects from your life story that can connect with other people, 207 00:11:56,890 --> 00:11:57,241 right? 208 00:11:57,241 --> 00:12:00,800 So you start looking back at your life and finding those pivot points and those 209 00:12:00,801 --> 00:12:05,200 moments that really started you down this road and that can connect with other 210 00:12:05,201 --> 00:12:05,680 people, right? 211 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:09,200 So you start learning about your story and aspects of your personality that you 212 00:12:09,201 --> 00:12:12,840 can bring out in your marketing and your messaging and so on, you know, 213 00:12:12,841 --> 00:12:14,600 and then you become more strategic. Like, 214 00:12:14,601 --> 00:12:18,760 how am I going to position myself differently? Let's look at the market, 215 00:12:18,890 --> 00:12:21,080 let's see who is out there, 216 00:12:21,410 --> 00:12:25,520 who's kind of in a similar space to what I'm doing and what are they doing? 217 00:12:25,521 --> 00:12:28,600 Like, what do they sound like, how are they messaging themselves? Right. 218 00:12:28,980 --> 00:12:32,160 And how do I now position myself as different? 219 00:12:32,670 --> 00:12:37,320 Ideally we can position ourselves as the first and only one who does what we do. 220 00:12:37,690 --> 00:12:38,041 Right? 221 00:12:38,041 --> 00:12:42,720 That's a key aspect of all positioning is being first and only. 222 00:12:43,020 --> 00:12:46,679 So if we can almost create a category for ourselves, right? 223 00:12:46,700 --> 00:12:49,400 How can even if it's something fairly small or minor, 224 00:12:49,940 --> 00:12:52,760 how can we position ourselves as, Hey, I'm the first one? 225 00:12:52,761 --> 00:12:57,760 Or I'm the only one who does this, right? Because that cuts right through. 226 00:12:57,820 --> 00:13:00,360 So those are some of the strategic aspects. 227 00:13:00,420 --> 00:13:03,240 And then that starts to start to formulate a personal brand. 228 00:13:03,500 --> 00:13:07,000 It starts to get into, okay. As I market myself, 229 00:13:07,150 --> 00:13:10,200 what does my first of all my visual brand look like? What, you know, 230 00:13:10,201 --> 00:13:11,480 the logo and all that stuff. 231 00:13:11,481 --> 00:13:14,559 That's what people typically think about when they think about branding. 232 00:13:14,780 --> 00:13:18,800 That's about logos and business cards. That's really not what it's about, 233 00:13:18,801 --> 00:13:21,720 but that's an aspect of it, of course. But you know, you start getting into, 234 00:13:21,721 --> 00:13:23,920 okay, if I'm gonna start marketing myself online, 235 00:13:24,429 --> 00:13:27,880 that typically means I'm gonna put out some form of content, right. 236 00:13:27,881 --> 00:13:30,760 It might be a podcast like you're doing, or it might be, you know, 237 00:13:30,761 --> 00:13:34,640 I'm gonna make videos or I'm gonna create a blog or I'm going to, you know, 238 00:13:34,690 --> 00:13:37,880 tweet on social media, right. I'm gonna be on Instagram or whatever. 239 00:13:38,500 --> 00:13:41,640 So choosing the channel that really fits your market is important. 240 00:13:41,740 --> 00:13:44,640 So for example, I would assume for accountants, 241 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:50,120 LinkedIn might be a very important platform to be on. So let's say, you decide, 242 00:13:50,121 --> 00:13:54,040 okay, I'm gonna go heavy into LinkedIn. I'm gonna put out a lot of content. 243 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,860 So that might mean every day I'm gonna make a short video or I'm gonna write a 244 00:13:58,861 --> 00:13:59,860 post or something like that, 245 00:13:59,861 --> 00:14:04,700 but I'm gonna gradually become visible and I'm gonna build my visibility 246 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:08,140 and I'm gonna build my network and I'm gonna put myself out there as an expert. 247 00:14:08,290 --> 00:14:11,100 Well then what kind of content am I putting out? 248 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:15,980 How am I framing the way that I talk about my subject 249 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:18,530 differently than everybody else, 250 00:14:18,590 --> 00:14:22,850 that's congruent with this personal brand idea that I've created. Right? 251 00:14:22,851 --> 00:14:27,050 So let's say it is I'm an accountant in a specific area. And you know, 252 00:14:27,051 --> 00:14:30,050 my personality is such that, Hey, I'm a big sports fan, you know, 253 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:33,730 outside of business, I'd love sports. Well maybe, you know, 254 00:14:33,731 --> 00:14:37,730 you can look at some of these aspects of your personality and start to blend 255 00:14:37,740 --> 00:14:42,490 those into your business, you know? So you may show up and like, you know, 256 00:14:42,510 --> 00:14:46,770 you start to position yourself somewhat as like a sports guy in some way, right? 257 00:14:47,390 --> 00:14:51,560 And you're like the sports accountant sort of person that, you know, 258 00:14:51,580 --> 00:14:53,960 you use sports metaphors. And so, you know, 259 00:14:53,961 --> 00:14:55,280 when you're talking about your business, 260 00:14:55,820 --> 00:15:00,280 but there're just ways to kind of create a different paradigm around yourself, 261 00:15:00,281 --> 00:15:02,840 the way that you look at your subject, right? 262 00:15:02,841 --> 00:15:06,040 So there's all these different factors that come into play downstream. 263 00:15:06,740 --> 00:15:08,480 As you create this personal brand, 264 00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:11,920 it starts to play itself out in real product. 265 00:15:12,100 --> 00:15:16,080 You're gonna actually put out content. You're gonna, you know, be interviewed. 266 00:15:16,081 --> 00:15:16,914 You're gonna, you know, 267 00:15:16,980 --> 00:15:19,680 all these different things that you are gonna now roll out, 268 00:15:19,900 --> 00:15:22,240 but they're coming from a particular point of view, 269 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:25,360 a strong point of view that's clearly defined, 270 00:15:25,470 --> 00:15:29,280 that people get right away and then ideally either they like you or they don't 271 00:15:29,281 --> 00:15:33,640 right away, you know, polarizing is sometimes really good. Like, Hey, 272 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:37,520 I really love this guy. Or I hate this person. That's actually a good thing. 273 00:15:37,521 --> 00:15:40,400 And branding, because you want people to get you really quickly. 274 00:15:40,860 --> 00:15:44,240 And those people that love you, you want them to really, 275 00:15:44,241 --> 00:15:47,200 really resonate with you, you know? And that's kind of the idea. 276 00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:50,280 You wanna create a tribe of like raving fans. 277 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:52,720 A tribe of raving fans. I like that. Yeah. 278 00:15:55,180 --> 00:15:57,440 So in order to get those tribe of raving fans, 279 00:15:57,441 --> 00:16:00,040 you almost have to kind of market yourself in a certain way. 280 00:16:00,300 --> 00:16:03,600 Is that the importance of the marketing is kind of getting yourself out there? 281 00:16:04,220 --> 00:16:08,640 Oh yeah, sure. And you know, a lot of marketing is simply mathematics. 282 00:16:08,860 --> 00:16:12,320 The idea is, you know, how can I get in front of X number of people per day? 283 00:16:12,380 --> 00:16:17,040 So for accountants, that should be, that should be fun to figure out, you know, 284 00:16:17,390 --> 00:16:19,680 what am I looking to build here? If I'm looking to build, 285 00:16:19,681 --> 00:16:21,120 let's say a million dollar business, 286 00:16:21,950 --> 00:16:24,960 what does that look like in terms of clients? You know, 287 00:16:24,980 --> 00:16:29,120 how would that shake out? What's my process for getting clients, 288 00:16:29,690 --> 00:16:34,320 right? So some in some way we're gonna construct some form of a sales funnel. 289 00:16:34,780 --> 00:16:38,660 We want people to be able to get in touch with us and then, you know, 290 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:41,300 become a client with us. So what does that look like? 291 00:16:41,690 --> 00:16:46,100 What does that client journey look like from A to Z? 292 00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:50,650 You know, the person who has no awareness of who you are to the end, 293 00:16:50,651 --> 00:16:53,290 they sign up and they become a valuable client for you. 294 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:55,170 What does that look like? And so, 295 00:16:55,350 --> 00:16:58,490 as you think about your business and you think about, okay, you know, 296 00:16:58,510 --> 00:17:00,090 who is it that I'm looking to target? 297 00:17:00,630 --> 00:17:03,250 How am I going to get those people to become clients? 298 00:17:03,740 --> 00:17:07,570 Let's reverse engineer the process backward and say, okay, 299 00:17:08,310 --> 00:17:12,210 how do I engineer that first contact with a person? 300 00:17:12,710 --> 00:17:14,490 So it may be on LinkedIn. 301 00:17:14,710 --> 00:17:18,970 My idea is they're gonna see a piece of my content and in my content, 302 00:17:19,190 --> 00:17:21,490 I'm gonna offer something. I'm gonna say, Hey, 303 00:17:21,510 --> 00:17:25,050 if you're interested in this subject, grab my free checklist, 304 00:17:25,109 --> 00:17:28,050 or I've written a report that talks about this. 305 00:17:28,550 --> 00:17:32,250 So come to my website and sign up for that report and opt in. Right? 306 00:17:32,630 --> 00:17:34,650 So now you've got a person on your email list, 307 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,010 then you're gonna use your email list to, you know, 308 00:17:38,011 --> 00:17:41,890 put out content every day or every week, a newsletter, something like that, 309 00:17:41,891 --> 00:17:46,170 where you're consistently staying top of mind with people, right? 310 00:17:46,171 --> 00:17:48,850 And then you have a mechanism in place, Hey, 311 00:17:48,851 --> 00:17:53,130 if you'd like to learn more about working with me, you know, 312 00:17:53,131 --> 00:17:57,090 here sign up for a free 30 minute consultation, 313 00:17:57,920 --> 00:17:59,790 right? What I'm saying is very basic, 314 00:17:59,970 --> 00:18:03,869 but this is a process that you would ideate and you would start to put into 315 00:18:03,870 --> 00:18:08,109 place, you know, to get people into your world. And then again, 316 00:18:08,310 --> 00:18:10,590 turn them into paying customers or clients. 317 00:18:12,869 --> 00:18:14,810 So as we kind of wrap up the conversation, 318 00:18:14,811 --> 00:18:19,490 you've shared a lot of great insight about the personal branding and how we can 319 00:18:19,491 --> 00:18:21,530 become specialists and how we can use marketing. 320 00:18:22,170 --> 00:18:25,170 What are maybe like three steps that somebody can take to get started on this 321 00:18:25,171 --> 00:18:26,850 process? They never tried this. 322 00:18:26,851 --> 00:18:28,890 They've never said I've never had a personal brand, 323 00:18:29,130 --> 00:18:31,690 they feel like they don't have a personal brand. What are like, you know, 324 00:18:31,691 --> 00:18:34,369 the three steps that they can kind of take to get started? 325 00:18:35,460 --> 00:18:38,790 Yeah. The first thing I would do is try to learn from other people. 326 00:18:39,070 --> 00:18:42,850 I would try to model other people. So in your market, 327 00:18:42,851 --> 00:18:46,290 there are probably people that you follow that are the thought leaders and 328 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:50,530 experts in your particular space. I would start, 329 00:18:51,150 --> 00:18:55,369 you know, doing some studying of those people. I would start looking at, 330 00:18:55,410 --> 00:18:58,869 I would sign up for their email list, right? I would look at, 331 00:18:58,870 --> 00:19:01,680 have they written a book? Do they have a podcast? 332 00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:04,760 Do they have a YouTube channel? Right? Are they on LinkedIn? 333 00:19:05,020 --> 00:19:08,000 And I would start to reverse engineer what other people are doing. 334 00:19:08,660 --> 00:19:09,760 And in doing that, you know, 335 00:19:10,540 --> 00:19:14,920 you can start even over a period of time in the background as just a little 336 00:19:15,590 --> 00:19:19,560 sort of hobby that you do over time, right? You may be really busy and stuff, 337 00:19:19,660 --> 00:19:20,960 but you wanna learn about this. 338 00:19:21,500 --> 00:19:25,160 You're gonna create like a little mechanism so that this stuff is dripping to 339 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:27,280 you all the time. So that's why I'm saying like, 340 00:19:27,310 --> 00:19:29,880 sign up for people's email newsletters, 341 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:32,720 subscribe to their blogs or whatever it might be. 342 00:19:33,180 --> 00:19:37,400 And just gradually in the background, start watching and observing and learning. 343 00:19:37,770 --> 00:19:39,640 Right? So that would be the first thing that I would do. 344 00:19:39,641 --> 00:19:41,320 Look at those people that you are following, 345 00:19:41,321 --> 00:19:46,280 that you find interesting and so on and start to really understand 346 00:19:46,310 --> 00:19:49,320 what they're doing, you know, and that may mean even, 347 00:19:49,450 --> 00:19:53,040 let's say they have a video out or a presentation where they sell something, 348 00:19:54,060 --> 00:19:58,760 record that presentation and transcribe it and start to actually 349 00:19:58,850 --> 00:20:01,560 study the words that they use, the language they use. 350 00:20:02,030 --> 00:20:04,760 What do they assume about the people that they're talking to? 351 00:20:05,570 --> 00:20:09,830 How do they talk about those people's problems, right. 352 00:20:09,930 --> 00:20:11,790 Do they know their problems really well? 353 00:20:11,890 --> 00:20:16,750 Can they describe their problems in a way that when a person is listening to it, 354 00:20:16,751 --> 00:20:20,510 they go, that that person gets me. They totally understand it. That's what, 355 00:20:20,511 --> 00:20:25,150 right. That's what we wanna be able to do is have a person go. That guy gets me. 356 00:20:25,650 --> 00:20:28,270 He understands exactly where I'm at. You know, 357 00:20:28,450 --> 00:20:30,670 so understand how are they talking about problems? 358 00:20:30,730 --> 00:20:32,750 How are they talking about solutions? 359 00:20:33,290 --> 00:20:37,710 Do they have some form of a system that they bring people through to get them 360 00:20:38,020 --> 00:20:40,630 that result that they want? Right. So I would, first of all, 361 00:20:40,631 --> 00:20:44,070 study other people in the market and I would really learn about it. I mean, 362 00:20:44,071 --> 00:20:47,840 go to Barnes and Noble, let's say for an afternoon with a notebook, 363 00:20:48,190 --> 00:20:53,080 grab a few books on personal branding and just start understanding the space 364 00:20:53,180 --> 00:20:57,560 and understanding the concept. And then with that notebook as step three, 365 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,880 I would start to look inside of yourself, what do I love to do? 366 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,280 What am I naturally great at? Where are my gifts and talents? 367 00:21:05,020 --> 00:21:09,400 How can I become kind of a personality, right? What are some of my interests? 368 00:21:09,401 --> 00:21:10,800 What are those things as a person, 369 00:21:10,830 --> 00:21:14,760 just as a human being that like other people find I'm funny, 370 00:21:14,859 --> 00:21:19,600 or I'm interested in music or wine or whatever it might be. 371 00:21:20,060 --> 00:21:23,960 How can I maybe take some of these things that make me interesting as a person 372 00:21:24,740 --> 00:21:29,640 and start to blend those into what I do professionally to make me kind 373 00:21:29,641 --> 00:21:34,080 of somebody that other people wanna listen to and we'll connect with other 374 00:21:34,081 --> 00:21:34,420 people. 375 00:21:34,420 --> 00:21:39,200 So those are just three of the first steps I would take to just dip your feet in 376 00:21:39,201 --> 00:21:40,640 the water and get used to that. 377 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:44,359 This has been Count Me In, 378 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:49,160 IMA's podcast providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from 379 00:21:49,161 --> 00:21:51,640 the accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard, 380 00:21:51,641 --> 00:21:54,960 and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance 381 00:21:55,109 --> 00:21:58,760 education, visit IMA's website at www.imanet.org.